Four-time SOA grad Francisco Ramón Salinas Rivera was named as the new director of El Salvador's National Civil Police on Jnauary 23. This follows the appointment of then Defense Minister and SOA graduate David Mungía Payés as Public Security Minister last November, and deputy director of the State Intelligence Organization (like the FBI) and SOA graduate Colonel Simon Molina Montoya . Possibly violating El Salvador's peace accords, these appointments also represent the further militarization of civilian duties under the increased "War on Drugs".

On Monday January 23, the Funes administration named retired general
Francisco Ramón Salinas as the new director of El Salvador’s National
Civil Police (PNC), replacing former Director Carlos Ascencio and thus
removing the last high-ranking member of the public security cabinet
linked to the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).
Prior to his naming, Salinas was Vice-minister of Defense and an active
duty general; he officially retired from military service several hours
before Funes appointed him.

This cabinet change has been extremely controversial. The PNC is a
civilian institution that was created by the 1992 Peace Accord
negotiations that ended the Salvadoran Civil War with the intention of
removing the Armed Forces from any role in public security, specifically
because of the long history of human rights violations by the military.
FMLN Secretary General Medardo González has called Salinas’ appointment
unconstitutional and a violation of the Peace Accords. Funes claims
this is not true; however, Article 168.17 of El Salvador’s Constitution
states that the President is responsible for, “Organizing, leading, and
maintaining the National Civilian Police for the protection of peace,
calm, order, and public security both in urban zones as well as rural
zones with a strict respect for human rights and under the direction of civilian authorities.” (Emphasis added by author)

Upon hearing of Salinas’ appointment to head of the PNC, the PNC
Inspector General Zaira Navas promptly resigned. Navas has aggressively
investigated and purged hundreds of corrupt police officers of all
ranks, earning praise from many – including Congressman Jim McGovern
(D-MA) – and death threats from others.

Salinas’ appointment is the latest in a series of changes announced
by Funes that has swept every single FMLN member out of the security
cabinet, and placed military officers in the highest-ranking public
security posts. These changes began last November when Public Security Minister Manuel Melgar,
a member of the FMLN appointed by Funes in 2009, was replaced by then
Minister of Defense Mungía Payés, another recently retired general. The
US State Department had been pushing Funes to remove Melgar since 2009,
while at the same time using economic and security cooperation
initiatives like the Partnership for Growth and the Central American
Regional Security Initiative to pressure El Salvador to use more
militaristic approaches in its fight against narcotrafficking and gangs.

The new Public Security Minister’s agenda bears uncanny resemblance
to the militarized “War on Drugs” policies promoted by the Washington in
Latin America, like Plan Colombia and Plan Mexico (Mérida Initiative).
Minister Munguía Payés has declared a “War on Gangs,” fought with
aggressive strategies to regain control of “gang territories” throughout
the country. As part of the new “war,” Munguía Payés has created
specialized anti-gang police units that are being trained by the
Salvadoran military and US security personnel. He has also proposed a
new “subsystem” of justice with special prosecutors and judges that only
deal with accused gang members. Payes’ “War on Gangs” – which amounts
to a war on the young and impoverished who have been forced into gangs
by the lack of economic opportunity – is a far cry from ex-Minister
Melgar’s focus on fighting the shadowy network of powerful organized
crime figures, many with documented connections to El Salvador’s
oligarchy and political elite.

When Melgar was replaced by Munguía Payes in November, FMLN
Spokesperson Roberto Lorenzana predicted that additional high-ranking
FMLN security officials would also be replaced, furthering the shift in
public security from civilian to military control. Lorenzana named both
PNC Director Ascencio and Roberto Linares, Director of the State
Intelligence Organization, (OIE in Spanish, El Salvador’s FBI) as likely
candidates for removal. Today, about 2 months later, Lorenza’s
predictions have come true and both of these FMLN functionaries have
been replaced. Prior to Ascencio’s dismissal this week, the Funes
Administration announced the removal and replacement of Roberto Linares a
few weeks ago. The new director of OIE is Ricardo Perdomo, who served
as Minister of Economy under the Duarte administration (1984-1989) – a
right-wing administration that dramatically escalated the Civil War and
worked very closely with the US government. Since Perdomo has no
professional experience in the area of intelligence, many expect that
active-duty Colonel Simón Molina Montoya, who is the newly-appointed
2-nd in command of OIE, will be calling the shots – especially since
Colonel Molina was Munguía Payes’ intelligence advisor when he was
Minister of Defense.

Funes’ rapid security cabinet changes have delivered control of El
Salvador’s security policy to a military logic and personnel in just
about 2 months’ time. These changes – which began with US pressure
against Manuel Melgar – taken along with the naming of functionaries
close to the United States, have consolidated US influence in the
security cabinet precisely at a time that the US is attempting to seal
up a geopolitical security corridor from Mexico to Colombia, ostensibly
to fight the “War on Drugs.” The changes are an unfortunate and alarming
step backwards on the 20th anniversary of the Peace Accords,
celebrated just over a week ago, which strictly removed military
participation in domestic security after the brutal state-linked
repression that left 75,000 dead during the Civil War.